Team Building Exercise: The Swamp
Objective:
For the team to go from one end to another end of a
swamp
using 3 boards and 7 scattered islands. You cannot put two boards together
end to end because they would then be unsupported (sink in the swamp).
Materials:
Three boards of equal length (8 ft. suggested); "islands"
are chalk drawn with a diameter of 1.5-2 ft. (If done inside, tape islands
down - they cannot move.)
Suggested team size:
15 members
If you have two teams, let them both go at once.
Team building key points:
- Don't stop when stumped - look for alternate methods of solution from
previously solved problems.
- It's okay to go and ask or look to other people
for help.
Options:
Teacher is "swamp monster" and can give attributes to team members, such as:
- Touch a person and they may no longer speak - good to do with a
member
that is doing all the thinking and talking.
- Touch a person and they have to close their eyes -
may want to do with the best problem solvers. If they can't see the
layout,
they will have difficulty solving the problem.
- Touch a person and they become lame - emphasizes dependence on others
and for the "others" how it feels to carry the weight of weaker
members.
- If a student has seen this problem before, make them both blind and mute.
The purpose of these options are to prevent the "super leaders" and
independent members from dominating the activity and forcing them to work as
a group.
Set up and distances:
The following islands are more than 8 ft apart:
1 to 3
3 to 5
4 to 5
5 to 7
